As medical technology advances, increasing numbers of patients are able to live with chronic conditions. Often, these patients are required to self-administer the necessary medications. In certain cases, the chronic conditions may require self-injection of one or more medications on a regular basis. Diabetes, for instance, is a common disease which requires sufferers to inject themselves with insulin one or more times each day.
Generally, self-administered injections are of the subcutaneous type. Subcutaneous injections are provided into the tissue just under the skin in order to provide a slower release of a medicinal substance into the body and thus guard against over-reaction in other portions of the body. Typically subcutaneous injections are performed into the fascia and fat tissue just under the skin.
When medical personnel perform a subcutaneous injection on patients, they usually pucker the flesh prior to applying the injection. As a result, the skin and its associated underlying structures, including a subcutaneous adipose tissue, are essentially isolated. Further, puckering the flesh firms the surface fascia to facilitate insertion of the medicament. While it is not difficult for a medical person to perform a subcutaneous injection in this manner, a self-injection into a patient's arm, back of arm, or buttocks cannot be performed with the flesh puckering technique.
To overcome this limitation, a number of injection devices have been designed specifically for self-injections. Such devices may utilize a vacuum or other structure to properly prepare the patient's flesh for an injection. While these devices make self-injections into difficult-to-reach injection sites possible, it still can be difficult to correctly administer the required injection every time. Specifically, it can be difficult for a patient to determine when the injection site is ready for an injection and to avoid premature injections. Also, it can be difficult for a patient to ensure that injection conditions are maintained throughout the injection so that the injection is effective.
In light of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for performing injections that is convenient to use and that requires minimal manipulation before, during, and after an injection. Another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for automatically initiating an injection procedure when predetermined injection conditions are met for a predetermined period of time. Another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for automatically stopping the injection procedure when it is determined that injection conditions are no longer met. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for successfully performing self-injections with the use of only one hand. Another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for performing injections that is easy to use, is relatively simple to manufacture, and is comparatively cost effective.